Mayer’s Vanity Fair Treatment Sheds Light on Loeb Relationship

Few business leaders have had the details of their careers recounted in as many splashy magazine profiles as Marissa Mayer, whose rise from Wisconsin A-student to Google overachiever to Yahoo CEO has been the subject of stories from Vogue to Bloomberg Businessweek. On Thursday, Vanity Fair takes its turn at answering the questions that keep coming up in Silicon Valley: Who is Mayer and is she good or bad for Yahoo?

Author Bethany McLean doesn’t choose sides on the latter question, instead choosing to trot out the views of both Mayer’s detractors (she lacks self awareness and micro-manages) and supporters (she’s a gifted geek), most of whom remain nameless in the piece. Mayer herself chose not to be interviewed for the story.

Sarah Meron, a spokeswoman for Yahoo, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Vanity Fair finds inconsistencies in Mayer’s leadership style at Yahoo: She arrived with a business plan to cut 5,000 to 7,000 jobs but backed away from the plan when she feared the company’s culture is “too fragile” to survive a big layoff.

The story also brings to light Mayer’s frenemy relationship with activist hedge fund manager Dan Loeb, who championed her hiring. McLean’s sources claim Mayer prompted Loeb’s departure from the board by offering to buy back a chunk of his shares at a good value.